the internet, science, and transformations of knowledge
DESCRIPTION
Talk on June 7, 2012 in the Harvard SAP Speaker Series (Office of the Senior Associate Provost for the Harvard Library). http://www.provost.harvard.edu/harvard_library/sap_speakers_series.phpTRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
TITLE
The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge
Ralph Schroeder & Eric T. Meyer
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
2012
@etmeyer
![Page 2: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
The OeSS Project 2005-2012
Oxford e-Social Science Project
Oxford
Internet
Institute
Oxford
e-Research
Centre
Institute for
Science, Innovation
and Society
at
Saïd Business School
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/microsites/oess/
![Page 3: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
research using
digital tools and data
for the distributed and collaborative
production of knowledge
![Page 4: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Research computing
The Grid
Supercomputing
Clouds
Big Data
Web 2.0
![Page 5: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Digital transformations of research
Computational Manipulability +
Research Technologies (Mathematization)
Socio-Technical Organization
(Computerization movements)
Transformations of Research Front
(For different fields)
![Page 6: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Computational Manipulability?
• ‘the distinctiveness of the network of mathematical practitioners is that they focus their attention on the pure, contentless form of human communicative operations: on the gestures of marking items as equivalent and of ordering them in series, and on the higher-order operations which reflexively investigate the combinations of such operations’
• ‘mathematical rapid-discovery science…the lineage of techniques for manipulating formal symbols representing classes of communicative operations’
![Page 7: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Research Technologies and Driving Forces
• Off-the-shelf and special purpose, but ‘all-purpose’ (passport-like) machines across contexts
• A hard core around which researchers can focus attention on a common research front
• Movements (SIMs, Frickel and Gross) to computerize (mathematize?) research (Kling)
• Core (research technologies) plus organization and movements - driving science (and research)
![Page 8: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
The sociology of advancing (online) knowledge production
• Research instruments plus mathematics -> high-consensus rapid-discovery science
• Orientation to a community of researchers at the research front
• Focus of attention limited by law of small numbers (Collins)
• The extension of computation into research • The limits of understanding and explaining
research-in-the-making… …versus a movement that applies across research
![Page 9: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Varieties of Research
• Humanities: patterns in words, numbers, images, sounds…
• Social Sciences: statistics, image analysis, mapping…
• Sciences: Hacking’s ‘styles’
• Mathematization, now Cloudified
• All knowledge is digitally manipublable in e-Research…
• …but relation of the object to the (physical) world or to the research front varies
![Page 10: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
I get pretty much everything I need by way of primary sources now from the web. For primary sources, I’ve now got more material than I will need probably for the rest of my lifetime.
“
![Page 11: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
My greatest frustration in life is that we can now answer all the questions we had in 1980 faster, much, much faster. And we can get around to publishing them much, much more quickly. But what we haven’t yet done is develop the new questions and the new paradigms that should be possible, and that we as imaginative scholars should be able to imagine.
“ Asking new questions?
![Page 12: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Source: CERN, CERN-EX-0712023, http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1203203
Particle Physics and EGEE: The world’s largest e-Science collaboration
![Page 13: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Citizen e-Science: Distribute computation
![Page 14: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Citizen e-Science: Distribute brainpower
NASA Clickworkers (ca. 2000)
![Page 15: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
![Page 16: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
GAIN:
Genetic Association
Information Network
![Page 17: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Years Type of study Samples DNA Sequencing Scope of collaboration
1985-1997 Family association / linkage
300 Hundreds of loci / candidate genes
4 sites in USA
1997-2007 Family association / linkage
1,500 10,000 SNPs 13 sites in USA
2007-2009 Genome-wide association
5,000 1,200,000 SNPs Multiple multi-institution
collaborations in USA
2010-? Whole genome 30,000 Millions of SNPs World-wide collaboration
Future Whole genome sequencing
? Entire genome sequence
World-wide collaboration
![Page 18: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
SPLASH: Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance, and Status of Humpbacks
Meyer, E.T. (2009). Moving from small science to big science: Social and organizational impediments to large
scale data sharing. In Jankowski, N. (Ed.), E-Research: Transformation in Scholarly Practice (Routledge
Advances in Research Methods series). New York: Routledge.
![Page 19: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
19
Humpback whales
![Page 20: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
20
![Page 21: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
![Page 22: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
e-Research in Sweden
• Sweden has a major e-Research initiative
• ’Universal’ personal identification
• Uniquely powerful datasets (e.g. twin registry)
• Significance: If Swedes can’t do it, no one can?
• Use of population data in a ’transparent’ society with high trust between people, authorities and researchers…
• …but, implementation of secure distributed access and ’incidents’ creating public concerns
• Swedish National Data Service
![Page 23: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Swiss BioGrid Novartis
![Page 24: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Annotation
Size
(no. of words)
Entries (topical
+ alphabetical + page-by-page) Contributors
Book Form Annotation: Weisenburger’s
Gravity’s Rainbow 162000 904 1 (22)
Wiki: Against the Day
455057 120 + 1358 + 4067
235
Comparison of book and wiki annotation efforts
Source: Schroeder, R., & Besten, M. D. (2008). Literary Sleuths Online: e-Research collaboration on the Pynchon Wiki. Information, Communication & Society, 11(2), 167 - 187.
Weisenburger vs. the Wiki on Pynchon
![Page 25: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Fig. 1 Culturomic analyses study millions of books at once.
J Michel et al. Science 2011;331:176-182
Published by AAAS
![Page 26: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Source: Moretti, F. (2011). Network Theory, Plot Analysis. New Left Review 68, p. 81
![Page 27: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Browsing and Searching: Humanities
Libraries
Journals
Peers
79%
66%
Google Scholar
59%
55%
62%
83%
48%
76%
95%
Visit the library
Browse library materials online
Search library materials online
Citation chaining
Browse printed journals
Browse online journals
Consult peers and experts Report available at http://www.rin.ac.uk/humanities-case-studies
![Page 28: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
TITLE
83%
78%
78%
72%
72%
63%
39%
37%
36%
36%
33%
29%
29%
26%
25%
16%
14%
12%
7%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Browsing or reading online journals
Peers or experts
Searching databases (e.g. Web of Science, arXiv)
Citation chaining
Browsing databases (e.g. Web of Science, arXiv)
Students
Notification services
Google Scholar
Email lists
Browsing library materials online
Browsing or reading print journals
Keyword searches of journals
Wikis
Web 2.0 services
Keyword searches of library materials
Browsing library materials in person
RSS Feeds
Social network sites n=76 Report available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1991753
Physical Sciences
![Page 29: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Important Information Resources
63%
100%
73%
90%
87%
71%
100%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Zooniverse
Nanoscience
Earth Science
Chemistry
Nuclear Physics
Gamma Ray Burst
Particle Physics
n=76
![Page 30: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
Google or Google Scholar as1st or 2nd most Important strategy
30%
36%
50%
40%
21%
20%
0%
60%
27%
0%
7%
0%
0%
0%
80%
55%
50%
47%
21%
20%
0%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Nanoscience
Earth Science
Particle Physics
Nuclear Physics
Gamma Ray Burst
Chemistry
ZooniverseGoogle
Google Scholar
Either Google or Google Scholar
n=76
![Page 31: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
Digital as a dirty word
I do feel pressure to work more with originals than with the digital images, but for the most part I do feel like I get more out of using these images on my computer. But there’s a certain pressure that that’s not what top scholars do because that’s not what top scholars did 25 years ago
“
![Page 32: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
What difference does it make?
– A physical core network of digital tools and data (computational manipulability)
– A research community focuses its efforts
– The expandable (‘clouds’) capacity of research instruments + new organizational modes
= ongoing diffusion of e-Research across domains
– Limits of this spread = limits of attention on new fronts towards which there are orientations: ‘advances’ versus existing directions
![Page 33: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Research Technologies and Driving Forces
• Off-the-shelf and special purpose, but ‘all-purpose’ (passport-like) machines across contexts
• A hard core around which researchers can focus attention on a common research front
• Movements (SIMs, Frickel and Gross) to computerize (mathematize?) research (Kling)
• Core (research technologies) plus organization and movements - driving science (and research)
![Page 34: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
The sociology of advancing (online) knowledge production
• Research instruments plus mathematics -> high-consensus rapid-discovery science
• Orientation to a community of researchers at the research front
• Focus of attention limited by law of small numbers (Collins)
• The extension of computation into research
• The limits of understanding and explaining research-in-the-making…
…versus a movement that applies across research
![Page 35: The Internet, Science, and Transformations of Knowledge](https://reader034.vdocuments.us/reader034/viewer/2022042814/5561ecd1d8b42af10c8b524e/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
Oxford Internet Institute
With support from:
Eric T. Meyer [email protected]
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/?id=120
Ralph Schroeder [email protected]
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/?id=120